Documentary on Pennsylvania Treasurer R. Budd Dwyer To Premier 24 Years After Taking His Own Life

Jan. 4, 2011 - PRLog -- Local News Veteran Lou Baxter to Moderate Post-Screening Discussion with Filmmaker and Dwyer Family at Allegheny College

Screening to Benefit R. Budd Dwyer Scholarship Foundation

MEADVILLE, PENNSYLVANIA, January 4, 2011 – 24 years after the shocking televised suicide of Pennsylvania Treasurer R. Budd Dwyer, a documentary about the life of the revered, yet much scrutinized politician, will screen for one night only in Dwyer’s hometown of Meadville. After a recent successful theatrical run in Harrisburg, filmmaker James Dirschberger will present Honest Man: The Life of R. Budd Dwyer on Jan. 22 at 5:00 p.m. and 7:30 p.m. at The Vukovich Theater at Allegheny College. Veteran television reporter and current WFXP and WJET News Director Lou Baxter will moderate the Question & Answer period with Dirschberger and the Dwyer family (Budd's son Rob Dwyer and sister Mary Kun), as well as The Sins of our Fathers author William Keisling, who appears in Honest Man, following both screenings. A suggested donation of $8 by audience members will be donated to the R. Budd Dwyer Scholarship Fund.

Honest Man is a skillfully crafted independent feature documentary that retraces the life of Budd Dwyer, a Pennsylvania politician who infamously committed suicide at a televised press conference. The film chronicles Dwyer's meteoric rise to political power and examines the bribery scandal and subsequent trial that pushed him to his breaking point. Featuring exclusive new interviews with Dwyer's family, friends, and colleagues, including a candid, heartfelt interview with Dwyer's widow - her last before her death in 2009 - and a rare, revealing interview with William Smith, the man whose testimony convicted Dwyer, Honest Man reveals a story that has remained untold for over 24 years. This portrait of a man swept up in the turbulent and cutthroat political world of the 1980s will undoubtedly raise important questions about Dwyer's presumed guilt.

Dirschberger, a filmmaker who resides in San Francisco, recently premiered Honest Man at the Carmel Arts and Film Festival in Carmel, Calif. The film has since then screened at the Red Vic Movie House in San Francisco and in Harrisburg at Midtown Cinemas, which experienced one of its largest per screen averages ever, largely in part to the impact of Dwyer’s political career, which still resonates 24 years after his death. Audience reaction and critical praise from these screenings has been overwhelmingly positive. Honest Man next screens in Buffalo at the Market Arcade Film & Arts Centre on January 7, before making its way to Meadville later in the month.

“I am extremely proud to finally bring Honest Man to Meadville after so many years of piecing this important story together,” Dirschberger said. “While I ultimately hope audiences will draw their own conclusions about what lead Budd Dwyer to take his life, I certainly hope it will lead to justice and closure for his family and friends.”

Director/Producer James Dirschberger is originally from Buffalo, NY, a few short hours north of Budd Dwyer's hometown of Meadville. Dirschberger moved to San Francisco in 2002 to pursue filmmaking. Since then he has teamed up with numerous Bay Area artists to create successful collaborative animations, music videos, short films and documentaries. His films have screened around the world and have accumulated over one million views online. He is currently developing an animated series for television. Honest Man is his first feature film, developed by his production company, Eighty Four Films. Its goal is to create original films through collaborative efforts with other emerging artists and filmmakers. To date, Eighty Four Films has produced over 65 films including Honest Man.

Honest Man is produced and edited by Matt Levie, a professional editor for almost twenty years. He has been lucky enough, in his career, to cut a wide variety of films, including feature films like The Guatemala Incident and Sleep Furiously, and documentaries such as 97 Orchard Street and Curandero. He has taught editing at the Academy of Art University, Stanford University, the Bay Area Video Coalition and the University of California at Berkeley. Levie has studied with Ralph Rosenblum (Woody Allen's first editor) at the Film and Television Workshops in Rockport, Maine, and holds a master's degree in Media Studies from the New School for Social Research in New York.

Tickets go on sale at the Vukovich Theater box office beginning at 3:00 p.m. on January 22. Advanced tickets available online at: https://www.brownpapertickets.com/event/142810.

For more information on Honest Man: The Life of R. Budd Dwyer and to purchase the DVD of the film, visit http://DwyerMovie.com/.

Donations to the R. Budd Dwyer Scholarship Fund can be made at http://dwyerfund.com/.

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